Apparatus for bagging material

An apparatus for bagging material into a film, the film having at least two overlapping sheets and at least one open edge, said apparatus comprising:

• a pair of spaced apart carriages;
• a pair of clamp assemblies, each said clamp assembly being movably mounted to a respective said carriage so as to be pivotally movable relative to said respective carriage and vertically moveable along the length of said respective carriage;
• and
• a film conveying device for conveying the film to a position adjacent to said carriages, said film conveying device comprising a lateral clamp movably mounted on a lateral rail, said lateral rail being adjacent to said carriages, said lateral clamp configured to clamp a free end of the film and move along said lateral rail thereby conveying the film to a position adjacent to said carriages,
• wherein said clamp assemblies engage the film and are configured to open the film by separating the overlapping sheets, said clamp assemblies being downwardly movable along the length of said respective carriages so as to provide for the opened film to progressively bag material positioned thereunder.

An apparatus for bagging material into a film, the film having at least two overlapping bagging sheets and at least one open edge, said apparatus comprising:

• a pair of spaced apart carriages;
• and
• a pair of clamp assemblies, each said clamp assembly being mounted to a respective carriage and comprising a respective clamp, each said clamp comprising a respective pair of clamping members being reciprocally movable from a clamping position for engaging the film to an unclamping position, each said clamping member comprising a respective pair of retractable gripping sheets for gripping a bagging sheet of the film,
• wherein when said clamping members engage the film from the external surface thereof, each said clamping member of a given said clamp engages a respective overlapping bagging sheet, said gripping sheets of each said clamping member grip a portion of a respective bagging sheet by retracting thereby pulling a portion of the bagging sheet therebetween, said clamping members of each given said clamp are moved in said unclamping position thereby separating the bagging sheets from one another.